A member of the House of Representatives, Sam Onuigbo (APC-Abia) has called for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts on the people.
Onuigbo made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja at weekend.
The lawmaker said that one of the critical ways of mitigating the effects of climate change is by addressing critical Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said by addressing the issue of poverty, food security and energy would go a long way to cushion the effect of climate change, while calling on the Federal Government to channel its energy toward this.
Onuigbo, who is also the Head of Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE International) in Africa, said the world must explore means of integrating actions on combating the effect of climate change.
Onuigbo, who represents Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency of Abia State called for support from other critical stakeholders.
”Climate change calls for use of clean cooking stove that does not generate a lot of emission.
“However, due to poverty and the fact that people cannot afford to purchase this, poverty drives them to fell trees and use charcoal.
“So from the felling of trees they engage in deforestation which degrade the land and return them to issues of poverty,” he said.
Talking about food security, he said, the country could produce food in a true climate–smart agriculture environment.
Onuigbo said, in addressing climate change, there is a need to explore the obvious ways in which climate actions could solve pressing problems in Africa.
He said the world must wake up to find ”a way to carry out aggregated actions to address these issues by placing a finger on the pulse of the interconnectedness between them.”
He further said that conscious effort should also be made in providing adequate funding to climate issues.
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